as in the days of Noah

What was the world like in the days of Noah?  That is a very important question.  For the answer has much to do with our ability to understand Bible prophecy, as that pertains to us, today.

Jesus said that at the time of his return to earth, it will then be as it was in the days of Noah, and as it was in the days of Lot:

"And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.  Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." (Luke 17:26-30)

A growing number of Bible prophecy teachers have misconstrued the meaning of Jesus's prophecy, in order to sell a sensationalized version of their own telling.  They begin by pointing to the (true) fact that in the days of Noah there were giants (called "Nephilim") ~ a hybrid race of creatures that resulted from interbreeding between humans and (fallen) angels ~ which creatures may have then dominated the world.  Some teachers go even further to say that the DNA (the genetic code) of the entire human race (with the exception of Noah and his immediate family) had been corrupted through centuries of mankind's intermingling with the fallen angels and their partly-human offspring.  A conclusion is then drawn by such teachers, suggesting that, according to his prophecy, Jesus intended for us to expect the reappearance of such creatures on the earth just prior to his return.

In so doing, numerous contemporary prophecy teachers have turned the image of what it was like in the days of Noah, into something entirely different from what Jesus himself actually said that he meant.  Jesus said: "[A]s it was in the days of Noe.... They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage," &tc.  In other words, Jesus meant that on the day that Noah and his family went into the Ark, it was a day just like any other day; it was business as usual.  So it was, too, at the time when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed: that day was essentially no different from any other day ~ except, that earlier that same day, Lot had departed out of Sodom...just before the fire fell from heaven.

Therefore, it is not the return of the Nephilim (as, now, many prophecy teachers say it is) that we should be looking for, as a sign of the soon-coming Rapture.  Neither (do I believe) is it the case ~ as some of the biggest names in the realm of Bible prophecy teaching claim that it is ~ that some kind of alien invasion from another dimension is going to precede the Rapture of the Church.  For, such an extraordinary event, such literally out-of-this-world circumstances, would seem to contradict the whole point of Christ's words, as above related.

That kind of sensationalized teaching is still very useful ~ though not to prepare the Church for Christ's now-imminent return, but ~ to sell books and DVDs and to elicit invitations to lecture (for a fee, of course).  Nobody wants to pay to hear someone say something like: "Nothing else has to happen before the Rapture ~ which is going to happen any day now, and on a day not unlike today."  End of lecture.  Besides, that kind of (sensationalized) teaching serves to distract many from perceiving the truth.

There is revealed in Scripture, however, something else which had to do with the condition of human society during the time of Noah; which is instructive to our understanding of Jesus's prophecy concerning what the world will be like at the time of his return.  The following passage is from the story of Noah and the Flood, in the book of Genesis:  

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.... The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." (Genesis 6:5-13)

Does that sound like a description of what the world is like today?  Permit me, if you will, to take the liberty to combine those two descriptions, pertaining to the "days of Noah" ~ that is, what Jesus said (in Luke), and what the above-quoted passage (in Genesis) reveals; as follows:

"As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.  They did eat, they drank, they married wives.., they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded.... And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.... The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt...."

Thus, we have a true representation (and not a sensationalized one), regarding what Jesus really meant to suggest in his prophecy concerning what the world would be like at the time of his return.  "As it was in the days of Noah": a time when that the whole world (with the exception of Noah and his family) lived in defiance of God.   But....

It is also important to note that, like as it was in the days of Noah, mankind's defiance is not always openly manifested.  The Scripture in Genesis reveals God's great displeasure concerning the fact that "every imagination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually."  Without a doubt, that fairly describes the condition of the world today.  But if it were the case ~ either in Noah's day or, yet, in this present time ~ that all the wickedness and rebellion that is in the hearts of men were openly carried into effect, the disintegration of human "society" would thus be so complete that it would no longer then be possible to buy and to sell, to build and to plant, to eat and drink, to marry and be given in marriage; &tc.

In other words, we need to understand that contemporary human society entails vastly more wickedness than what is outwardly apparent.  The world ~ as God sees it, must appear to Him unspeakably more evil than what any of us can even imagine that it is.

Therefore, we are confronted with something of a paradox.  For, on the one hand, Jesus's description of the pre-Flood world suggests the existence at that time of a fully functioning society.  Likewise, in the days of Lot, before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we know that those cities were prosperous, fully functioning centers of society.  But in both cases ~ in the days of Noah, and of Lot, respectively, God was so angry with the actual (though largely concealed) condition of those societies that God moved swiftly to utterly destroy them.

Now, we are able to see why that Jesus's prophecy really is far more important than what most people, perhaps, have supposed.  What Jesus was trying to warn us about ~ who are now living in that very time period of which he prophesied, can be restated thus:

God's wrath is going to be poured out at such a time: when, outwardly, human society appears to be prospering or, at least, functioning in such a way that, for the most part, people are able to carry on with normal activities of life ("business as usual"); but in which societies, at the same time, there is pervasive corruption and widespread violence. 

God's judgment will fall suddenly at such a time because, in fact, there exists far more wickedness in such a society, than meets the eye.

We are right there.

All that we are capable to perceive (apart from Scripture), concerning the condition of the world at large, is a sketchy image in our minds, drawn from what very limited information we may obtain by means of various media, if not by our own experience.  Yet, even those snippets of information, as it were, are sufficient to tell us that, truly, we are now living in what the Bible forewarned would be "perilous times" ~ "in the last days."  And who will argue against the notion that, today ~ like as it was in the days of Noah, "the earth is filled with violence" and is "corrupt"?

It is more than interesting that in his prophecy (in Luke), Jesus seemed to put special emphasis upon the fact that the judgment involving the Flood in the days of Noah, as well as the judgment of fire in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, followed in both cases immediately after those men of God (Noah and Lot, respectively) departed "out of the world," as it were.  "[U]ntil the day that Noe entered into the Ark, and the flood came.... [T]he same day that Lot went out of Sodom;" are phrases which Jesus himself associated with conditions which he then related to how things will be at the time of his return.

Thus it seems that Jesus meant to suggest that the soon-coming Rapture, whereby the Church shall then depart out of the world, shall immediately precede some cataclysmic events on earth.  In fact, close analysis of many other prophetic passages related to the time of the Rapture, supports that same idea.  Very soon after the Rapture, judgment shall then begin to be poured out in fury upon the world.  There is no doubt that that is the clear teaching of Scripture.